"We receive penalties for whatever we do" - Fernando Alonso not looking forward to the sprint on Saturday

Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso has claimed that he isn't looking forward to racing in the Sprint race on Saturday in Miami as he believes that they cannot race properly due to fear of getting penalties.

The Spanish driver displayed some unbelievable defensive skills at the Chinese GP Sprint race last time around while defending his P3 slot from Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc, and Lando Norris.

However, he found himself on the receiving end of the 10-second time penalty whilst going wheel-to-wheel with fellow countryman Carlos Sainz. However, the two drivers did collide a little bit into each other, with the two-time world champion more to blame for diving in the corner.

Speaking with F1TV, Fernando Alonso, despite finishing P8, mentioned that he was hoping for some fun. He said:

"“Not really. Obviously, we didn’t do any any long run in FP1. Anyway, the Sprint race means nothing, especially because we cannot fight or anything like that. We receive penalties for whatever we do. So just tomorrow is a day for fun, but not for us, not very interesting.”

The two-time world champion finished the Sprint Qualifying session in Miami behind his teammate Lance Stroll, who qualified a place ahead of him in P7.

Fernando Alonso analyzes his P8 finish in the Sprint Qualifying

Fernando Alonso stated that there wasn't a lot of grip at the Miami Autodrome despite both he and Lance Stroll getting in the top 10 in the Sprint Qualifying session on Friday.

As quoted by the aforementioned source, the 42-year-old said:

“It was difficult for sure to read the grip on track and changing the tyre compound from the medium to the soft at the end, It was difficult, but same for everybody. I think we put both cars in Q3 which was the target and let’s see tomorrow.”

However, Stroll was more upbeat than his experienced teammate and added (via F1.com):

“It was a good Sprint Qualifying, for sure. We chose to run a used Soft tyre in SQ3 and managed to qualify P7, which sets us up well for tomorrow. Our aim will be trying to pick up some points in the Sprint event.”

The Aston Martin duo would certainly look to challenge the cars ahead, such as Daniel Ricciardo in P4 whilst defending their positions from the faster Lando Norris in P9 and hope for some good haul of points in the Sprint race.